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Monday, 9 April 2012

The Woman in White: Part One

This post shall henceforth also be known as 'The Birthday Post' because, yes, you guessed it, today's my birthday! This has almost nothing to do with The Woman in White, other than the fact that I had to schedule reading it and writing this around it, but still, I thought it was worth mentioning! So, yeah, Happy Birthday to meeeeeeee *puts on party hat* *opens presents* *smiles a lot*.

ANYWAY. Now that the festivities are done with, let's get to the serious stuff. The Woman in White- she is very mysterious, and also possibly crazy- I mean, just because she claims that she isn't, doesn't mean that she isn't, cause that's what a crazy person would say anyway! Her introduction did make me jump a tiny bit though, and I wasn't entirely sure that she wasn't a ghost, to be honest, just one of those new fangled ghosts that can touch things and have just escaped from the asylum, apparently.

So, she's already very interesting. She's nearly the most interesting character so far, but then there's Marian who is clearly awesome and who I'm going to marry some day. I mean, you have to love a girl with that much charisma and natural ease with everyone, who's really shrewd and awesome and can investigate things and generally just walk around being awesome. I can't even tell you how much it bugs me that Walter fancies her much much less interesting sister just because she's, you know, pretty. (Also, can we talk about the fact that she looks so much like The Woman in White? Is that going to be a thing, or should I just stop talking about it now?) This genuinely just makes me want to constantly kick Walter until he admits that Marian is the greatest and that, even though her face is gross (allegedly) she would be the much better companion and that she's just generally the greatest. And, if you'll just let me be really petty for a minute, does Wilkie Collins really have the right to value beauty over everything else? We all saw the dude's forehead, right?

What else? Well, Mr Fairlie is clearly nuts, and that letter written in the third person was about the weirdest thing I've read in a while. Oh, and there's clearly more to Mrs Vesey than meets the eye- she's possibly silently plotting against everyone, and it's only a matter of time before her evil plans come to fruition... Maybe. And, clearly, Sir Percival Glyde has the best name, maybe ever. As an English reader of The Woman in White (and possibly the only English reader in this readalong of it, although I can't be sure about that...) I felt like it was my duty to look up the difference between a knight and a baronet, which, as I'm sure you'll remember, was a thing. And... I'm still not sure. Other than a baronet is a higher honour than a knight (which is why Marian gets all haughty about it) and it's the only hereditary honour which isn't a peerage. Very illuminating, or, you know not.

I totally realise that that last paragraph is going to come back to haunt me when everyone else has figured out what a baronet is, and I'm the stupid person who thought I'd be able to figure it out because of, you know, my nationality. Turns out, it doesn't quite work like that! But anyway- everything's all very mysteriously mysterified, and I'm very intrigued to keep reading. This is as opposed to my feelings last week, where I couldn't be bothered to open it, left it til Saturday evening, and was typing this into Sunday morning (hey, did you all have a good Easter? I probably will/did or something...) So hopefully this newfound enthusiasm will have me reading away like a good little reader this week. We can but hope...

P.S. Did I mention it's my birthday? I enjoy the fact that it's on Easter Monday, because it means I can pretend it's an international holiday just for me, and not for that other dude who died aaaages ago. So enjoy your day off work in my honour!

19 comments:

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Laura, happy birthday to you! (Imagine me singing this just a tiny little bit out of tune. Oh and also thanks for the day off :D).

Sooo... Let's go on to things less amazing.I LOVE the creepy white woman! Totally hoped Walter was going to fall for her, but no, he isn't even original enough to choose Marian (who is obviously so much cooler than her puppet sister), he goes for the fair damsel in distress. Boring!Apart from that I'm enjoying good old Wilkie, but I still don't get the baronet/knight affair. Guess that's because I'm not English... :D

Walter is kiiind of boring so I don't really need him to fancy Marian cause she needs someone awesome who... hasn't really shown up yet! So maybe that will happen. Maybe. I also kind of think that Walter HAS fallen for the Woman in White, and that's why he likes Laura so much, because she reminds him of the woman he saved... or something. I totally just made that up in the last like minute, so you can probably ignore that!

So, happy birthday then! I wish Easter Monday were a national holidays here in the US 'cause then I'd have the day off work and I could read The Woman in White and toast your natal day with bonbons or something. But alas.

I'm not doing this month's readalong but I am going to lurk and leave comments on everybody else's posts.

Also "just one of those new fangled ghosts that can touch things and have just escaped from the asylum" ahahaha. Yes. THOSE ghosts. Also when I clicked on this I realized I didn't...really...mention the woman in white in my post. Or the plot really. So...that's something to work on for next week.

I TALKED ABOUT YOUR BIRTHDAY IN MY POST BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYY

Also, my initial thought was that Laura and WiW had switched places when little girls, but now I don't think that's true but it MIGHT happen later. Right? Yeah. Some kind of switch has to happen or why would they look alike?

I will give you Marian and I will have the Woman in White and heal her of her possible craziness, or just her PTSD. It will be beautiful! Marian and I will have an affair, of course.

Also THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY LOVE! I'm so good at replying to comments in a timely manner...

I like the switch thing! They may switch! That would be awesome! It's probably one of those things that won't happen though, like Midori being the evil seductress in Norwegian Wood (even though I'm pretty glad she wasn't now. And I'm done talking about Norwegian Wood. For now.)

I don't understand this not having Easter Monday off! We get the whole four day weekend thing! Maybe you don't get it because you have the Fourth of July and other exciting things like that.

Anyway... It upsets me that the character called Laura is boring. Because, obviously, Lauras are awesome! I feel that I may have already said that in my comment to you, but I was SO tired last night that I can't even remember. So sorry if I did.

That plot would be awesome! So far there are about 10 possible things that might happen that I would totally approve of! Which is obvs a good thing!

I'm wondering if the physical resemblence between Anne Catherick and Laura Fairlie is there purely for purposes of foreshadowing. Like - Laura Fairlie will become 'damaged' like Anne Catherick if you let Sir Percival Glyde get to her! Anne is the picture of Laura's possible future, or something like that.

Also, if Mrs. Vesey was like Roz from Monsters, Inc. - biding her time only to show that she's been a government plant all along - that would be hilarious.

Well, I'm a day late, but happy birthday! And I love your rambles about this book. It's been nearly 3 years since I first read it and you make me want to go back and reread. I jumped with the woman in white was first introduced too. Very chilling. And I *adored* Marian!!!!! She was the best narrator ever. Have you met Fosco yet? He's one of the best villains of all time!

I hope your birthday was fan-flipping-tastic! I'm still trying to read everyone's WiW posts in between soul-crushing work activities and sleeping, both of which should be outlawed worldwide, I say. I'm SO glad you talked about Anne because I, like Alice, completely forgot to. There's just so much to talk about in this book, and it's only been 130 pages! We are so very ambitious, our little readalong crew. Onward!

Dudeeee I'm so behind in reading everyone's posts too, only because of, you know, birthday things instead of horrible ones. Also, I will allow you to outlaw horrible work (DON'T LET YOUR SOUL BE CRUSHED! I LOVE IT!) but not sleep because it is the awesomest! Bless poor Anne- I do keep forgetting that's her name though, as I've wilfully forgotten that boring girl's name is Laura...

Happy Birthday yesterday! Nice hat. That is a tough competition: who is more interesting, Anne or Marian. Anne's got the whole intrigue and I-might-actually-be-dead thing going for her, while Marian has the whole I AM AWESOME AND HERE IS SOME OF MY AWESOME TO PUT IN YOUR FACE. This will have to be delved into further.